Parliament And Sugar

Today was a super low key. I slept in really late and ate lunch at Naomi's house. Her mom drove me to the train station and I met up with Connor at 1. We went on a tour of the parliament house, and between the tour guide and Connor's insider tid-bits, I felt like an Australian citizen as I walked out of the building. The rooms were covered in legitimate gold leaf, and I just wanted to touch everything... it was all so pretty and elaborate. 

After that we stopped at a coffee shop and I had another absolutely delicious hot chocolate. I opened a sugar packet while we were talking and discovered that along with everything else Australia has that I love, they also have fabulous sugar. I know... random. But seriously. Their sugar is to die for. After our drinks we walked around Melbourne, not really looking for anything in particular. I wanted to see Melbourne at night, so we were trying to kill time. As we were walking near the sports arena area, we heard some random bells playing. We followed the sound up some stairs to find dozens of upside down church bells on poles. We read a sign to find out it was an art instilation that had been erected a few years back, and the music playing was written by a random person who sent the sheet music to a website, and the bells played the song. Apparently the bells play for one hour at a time, 3 times a day, so we were feeling pretty lucky to have heard the bells and found them. By this time the sun was going down so we headed back towards the Yarra River so I could see the city all lit up. 

Melbourne has one casino, called the Crown, and it's huge. Apparently they make so much money that they have extra cash to blow on FIRE BALLS. Seriously. These huge towers spurt fire every 30 minutes for 10 minute intervals. It was awesome, especially for a pyromaniac like me!

Melbourne is really pretty at night, especially along the river where all the lights are reflected like a mirror.

That's a 4 story chandelier hanging in the main Crown Casino building

As it always goes, I was hungry by this point, so we walked back to Connor's place for dinner and Mario Kart until Naomi was able to pick me up after work.

Melbourne is so amazing. I am loving the culture and atmosphere of this city so much.